Public Art Magazine (Korea)
March 2023

www.artinpost.co.kr

Synthesis of Visions in Su Kwak's Abstract Painting

"Su Kwak who is a Korean-American artist has consistently dealt with the theme of light in its physical and spiritual senses. After immigrating to the United States in 1973 from Korea, Kwak studied art at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas and completed the MFA program at the University of Chicago in 1979. Since the mid-1980s, Kwak’s abstract style has developed from semi-abstract landscapes that include the land, water and light, reflecting the state of her mind, to experimentation in the late 1990s with sculptural works using acrylic paints on paper collage and plaster.

After 2002, Kwak redefined light to convey a more spiritual meaning in her abstract painting by emphasizing light’s healing power for weak and ailing bodies. In her Healing Light series (2003- 2006), the contrasts of primary colors and the cutouts on the canvas surface, revealing the supporting frames, became much bolder. Before the Cosmic Light series, her paintings on light and time from 2007 to 2012 continued to present quite dynamic, almost sculptural abstractions in which the spiritual light penetrates the open wounds of the canvas body.

By contrast, the Cosmic Light series (2013-2015) presents internalized light in Kwak’s paintings. The general style of this series appears quieter and the compositions are stabilized with subdued hues, repeated cycles of lights, and relatively flat surfaces. In fact, the most recent series of Light Within (2016-2017) and of Light Cycles (2018) seems to exhale light from inside the canvas. Therefore, Su Kwak’s Cosmic Light series can be considered an act of incubation for embracing the inner healing light and preparing for external delivery of the light to be born as life in subsequent years. 

Over the years, light in Kwak’s painting has changed from the reflected sunlight on water through spiritual healing light, and eventually to cosmic light moving in time and space. The motif looks as though it has been lifted from this earth to the transcendent realm, yet depiction of light in the Cosmic Light series has its own visual characteristics. Unlike the decisive lines of the light sources and light beams in Kwak’s earlier paintings, cosmic light is often represented through blurred, dispersed lines resembling collected particles. Away from the rigid frames of time and space, the cosmic light seems to exist ambiguously, evaporating between time and space.

Each painting has one or more circular sources or reflectors of light, formed by repeatedly swirling lines. Multiple brushstrokes with diverse colors and broken lines are visible in the straightforward rays of light in perpendicular crossings and penetrating lines among the circles. The rhythmic repetitions and sudden ruptures of the lines of light suggest the concept of time projected in the continuous cycle of life and in the critical moment of velocity, interruption or dilation in the personal or spatial universe. With its relatively introverted, meditative abstractions, the Cosmic Light series seems peaceful and tranquil when viewed from a distance. However, such an immanent yet dynamic power of the future captures a glowing journey to the goal of light.  

The Cosmic Light series illuminates Kwak’s mature stage of synthesis in her art she has pursued over the last forty years since her first exploration of its meanings and methods. The Abstract Expressionism that inspired her was intrinsically a synthetic art derived from Eastern ink painting tradition and Western art trends. The light in her art signifies a synthesis of natural sunlight and spiritual energy that she observes, meditates on, and expresses while embracing a syncretic symbolism of Confucianism, Daoism, and Shamanism in Korean Christianity. She also envisions a synthesis of past and present along with temporality and eternity.

In a suffering world with its deconstructive chaos and depressing uncertainty, Kwak’s paintings give us hope to see her continuing growth toward an ultimate synthesis that nullifies any conflicts, stereotypes, prejudices, or negativity while delivering harmony, magnanimity, affection, and vitality through the cosmic light beyond imagination."

-Jungsil Jenny Lee, Korean Critic and Art Historian

Seeds of Hope
Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 inches (76 x 61 cm) 
Click Painting Image to Enlarge

Face of Eternity
Gentle sunlight calms restless waves 
2022, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 40 x 60 inches (102 x 152 cm)
 
Click Painting Image to Enlarge

Fire of Love
Spreading love and light across the waters
2022, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 30 x 40 inches (76 x 102 cm)

Hidden Hope
A rainbow glimmer in the sky gives us hope
2022, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 30 x 40 inches (76 x 102 cm)

Dialogue
A streaming sun reaching our hearts brings light in darkness
2022, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 30 x 40 inches (76 x 102 cm)

Birth of Love
Love opens us to new possibilities
2022, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 30 x 40 inches (76 x 102 cm) 

Merciful Love
In the twilight between day and night, love forgives all
2021, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm)  

Light of Life
 Looking toward light, despair becomes hope
2021, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 16 x 20 inches (41 x 51cm)

Eye of Heaven
Being drawn toward heaven by unseen love
2021, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm) 

Ascending to Heaven
Moving toward light in the sky
2021, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm)  

A Rainbow of Hope
After a storm comes the rainbow
2021, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm)   

A New Song
Gentle sunlight leads us to eternity
2021, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm)

Becoming One
Blazing sunlight brings together earth and sky
2021, acrylic and paper collage on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm)     

Longing for Life
 Crossing the boundary to the fullness of life
2021, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm)

Circle of Love
 Rays of sun touching us with their boundless love
2021, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 inches (61 x 76 cm)

Universal Dawn
Visible and invisible join together in a new day
2020, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 66 in (102 x 168 cm)

Time of Peace
A golden light brings reconciliation and peace
2020, acrylic on canvas, 24 x 30 in (61 x 76 cm)